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The Duck Jazz Festival is a special and unique event in North Carolina and we were excited to perform as part of the festival in 2015 – coastal North Carolina is not known for its bustling music scene (Laura writing here, as a native of Beaufort, can attest to this firsthand), so that the coastal town of Duck, along with sponsors such as the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, puts their efforts into a well-curated, day-long jazz festival that is free and open to the public on a beautiful beach-side town commons is a feat, a wonder, and a blissful experience for those coastal natives who may not make it to larger metro areas very often to catch the latest in jazz performances.

This year the festival has expanded to include two days of music – the traditional day-long festival on Sunday and they have added a Saturday afternoon set on the town commons featuring the Mint Julep Jazz Band. We hope you will join us for this free show from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a swing dance lesson between sets taught by Laura and Keenan. Then, stay for Sunday’s concerts, with performances from Davina and the Vagabonds, the Marquis Hill Blacktet, the Rad Trads, the Robert Jospe Express Trio, the Second Marine Aircraft Wing Jazz Ensemble, and the First Flight High School Jazz Band.

To be asked back to perform at this festival is an honor and a joy – the jazz fans at this festival are gracious and responsive, the best audience an artist could ask for. See you soon, Duck!

Excited to be returning to Richmond, VA this weekend for I Heart Bal, a wonderful Balboa workshop weekend with this year’s slogan of “Don’t Stop BALievin'” and world-class Balboa instruction from Kelly Arsenault and Mickey Fortanasce, Chelsea Lee and David Lee, and Annabel Quisao and Michael Quisao. If you love swing music, unicorns, and awesome people, this is probably the event for you. See you soon, lovelies!

Swing bandleader Glenn Crytzer wanted to do something to make a difference, so he had this idea of a compilation album of modern day swing and traditional jazz bands coming together to contribute music to benefit the American Civil Liberties Union. After reaching out to 16 bands (including the Mint Julep Jazz Band!), fundraising, organizing the production of this album, and getting the blessing of the ACLU, the album is ready for purchase! Pick up a copy of That New Old Sound on Bandcamp, either digital or physical, and if you order by December 17, he’ll ship it to you in time for Christmas – an extra $2.00 and he’ll even gift wrap it for you. All the proceeds from the sale of this album go to the ACLU to support the defense and preservation of civil liberties

We are excited to be a part of this compilation album, a great gift idea for any jazz lover or to give someone as a sampler of what’s going on with early jazz today, and to do a small part to contribute to the greater good.

It’s time to do what we were born to do – play for our home crowd of swing dancers at the Triangle Swing Dance Society dance on the Triangle’s best social dance floor, the ballroom at the Carrboro Century Center on March 19, 2016. If you don’t know how to dance, TSDS has you covered with a free beginner lesson at 7:00 p.m. before the dance. Come swing with us!

Thank you so much for your love and support, in all the ways, of the Mint Julep Jazz Band’s new album endeavor, Battle Axe! We’ll be heading into the studio in April to record the album and in the interim I’ll be getting information from you in the coming weeks and connecting some of you with contributor vendors so that we can fulfill your rewards, which are so deservedly earned for your faith and pledges in our album project. I’ll also be posting our list of Kickstarter backers and contributors on the website for a more proper thank you. Stay tuned!

The Mint Julep Jazz Band’s first big road trip is coming up this Friday, June 14, 2013 as we head to Cleveland, Ohio to perform at All Balboa Weekend! This is the longest-running, if not the largest, Balboa event in the world, and plays host to a number of competitions, dances, DJs, international instructors, live music, vendors, and other special events throughout the weekend. Needless to say, we are honored to be a part of their band lineup, along with Pittsburgh’s Boilermaker Jazz Band, who is playing the Saturday night dance.

The Mint Julep Jazz Band is performing at the Friday night dance, from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.!

On April 5, 2013 we are heading east of our usual stomping grounds to play the Friday night jazz concert series at The Kila Company in Wendell, North Carolina. Come join us from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.!

We hear that the event will have hors d’ouerves, wine, door prizes, and each month a different local business will do a 20 minute presentation when the band takes a break.

We thought it would be a good idea to set up a way to let you know what is going on each month with the Mint Julep Jazz Band and stay in touch with people who are not as involved with social media. Hence, the Mint Julep Jazz Band email list! We plan on sending out updates once a month or so with news and concert dates. We have set up an account with MailChimp, a user-friendly email list service.

How do you sign up? Click on this link –> http://eepurl.com/oqMl9 <– fill out the form with your name and email address and you are done!